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Business school creativity amongst MBA students at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

  • Authors: Von Solms, Woudi
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: Creative ability in business , Creative thinking , Educational innovations
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/4255 , vital:20574
  • Description: Innovation allows for competitive advantage. Competitive advantage and innovation lead to economic growth. For innovation to occur, creativity is necessary. All individuals are creative, but continuous practice is necessary to be creative. The process from creativity to innovation and competitive advantage and economic growth involves three stages. The first stage involves educating primary and secondary school children to be creative across different domains. Current school systems focus on mathematical and linguistic skills. Examples of domains are linguistic, performance, mechanicalscientific and artistic. These creative domains can be taught through encouraging children to use their imagination and different methods. In primary and secondary education little-c creativity and mini-c creativity are developed. Little-c creativity involves developing problem solving skills. Mini-c creativity involves the ability to recognise personal creative events, not necessarily recognised by others. Tertiary education involves students gaining knowledge in a specific domain. While studying to gain knowledge and conduct research on a specific domain, practicing creativity is still important. Upon completion of tertiary education the second stage in creating economic growth through creativity and innovation commences. This second stage involves organisations hiring creative employees that have knowledge within a domain similar to the organisation‟s industry. Creative employees develop creative ideas. The creative ideas allow for innovative products to be developed. Innovative products satisfy customer needs and lead to competitive advantage. Managers should encourage employees to be innovative. Employees that are motivated and encouraged to take risks develop a talent within the domain that they are employed in. The ability to be creative and innovative leads to pro-creativity and big-c creativity. Pro-c creativity refers to a talent being developed over approximately ten years. Big-c creativity involves creating products that benefits society positively. Upon creating products that benefit society, competitive advantage is created that allows for the third stage of creating economic growth to commence. This third stage involves economic growth that stems from innovation and creative individuals. Countries currently focus on stage two where they aim to encourage innovation amongst organisations. There is a realisation that to be innovative,creativity is necessarily and that creativity must be taught by means of education. This research study will use a questionnaire by Kaufman (2009, 2012, 2013) to determine how creative students perceive they are and whether they are capable of recognising different levels of creativity. A similar study was conducted in Germany and Mexico. Professor Alexander Brem was asked for the questionnaire. The questionnaire was translated from German to English. The objective is to determine whether students perceive themselves to be creative, thus being innovative within their organisations and indirectly allowing for competitive advantage and economic growth. Kaufmans‟ questionnaire was distributed to Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Masters in Business Administration students. Ethics clearance was granted and answering the questionnaire was optional.To draw conclusions an Exploratory Factor Analysis was done on creative domains and the levels of creativity students are able to recognise. The first Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed performance creativity as the first factor, mechanicalscientific creativity as the second factor, scholarly creativity as the third factor and artistic creativity as the fourth factor. The second Exploratory Factor Analysis grouped pro-c creativity, big-c creativity and little-c creativity as the first factor, not being able to recognise creativity as the second factor and mini-c creativity as the third factor. The individual results from each factor were discussed. Each factor was further analysed by comparing gender, age, year‟s work experience and type of students to the type and level of creativity. The results show three trends. Firstly, results indicated that respondents perceived themselves to be predominantly scholarly and mathematical-scientific creative. This result is synonymous with secondary research that states that educational institutions focus on enhancing linguistic and mathematical skills amongst students and that developing skills in other domains are seen as less important. Secondly, the ability of students to recognise different levels of creativity decreases from big-creativity to pro-c creativity; pro-c creativity to little-c creativity and little-c creativity to mini-c creativity. Students are therefore better able to recognise large inventions than smaller inventions. Thirdly, results indicated that creativity levels do not differ when gender, age, year‟s work experience and type of students are compared. In this research study the above statements will be discussed in detail.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Business, state and society in the Western Cape from 1960 to 1990

  • Authors: Wood, Robert Jameson
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: Industrial policy -- South Africa. , Apartheid -- South Africa -- 1960-1990 , South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1960-1990 , South Africa -- Economic policy
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DPhil
  • Identifier: vital:9125 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1018502
  • Description: This research examines the relationship between business, the state and society in South Africa -- particularly the Western Cape -- over the period from 1960 to 1990, viewed against the background of economic conditions in this region, South Africa and the world. Utilising a development history approach, it is based on an extensive study of primary and secondary documentation, supplemented by a panel of in-depth interviews and observation. This study finds that the relationship between business and apartheid incorporated both functional and dysfunctional elements, although over time the benefits diminished and the costs multiplied. The latter, Regulation Theory suggests, is true for any institutional order, but it could be argued that, under apartheid, the particularly fragile and contradictory nature of the institutional arrangement made inevitable crises more rapid and more pronounced. On the one hand, apartheid restricted the economic development of the country, as a result of a range of factors from skills shortages to the visible waste of resources on grand ideological projects and security; as suggested by Resource Curse Theory, minerals windfalls tend to encourage irresponsible behaviour by governments. On the other hand, certain businesses prospered, notably the Afrikaner business sector. All business benefited from the overall growth of the 1950s and 1960s, whilst niche players often did quite well even during the 1980s. Further, the South African businessmen, both English- and Afrikaans-speaking, were skilful in adapting to the difficult conditions brought about by apartheid, and in many cases they prospered. As highlighted by Business Systems Theory, embedded social ties and informal relations may help either support or compensate for formal regulatory pressures. Many of these general trends were particularly accentuated in the Western Cape. The fact that business protests against government policies were often more motivated by concerns as to future property rights and of social disorder, rather than human rights, does indeed raise serious moral issues. However, in helping encourage political reform, they may have made a positive contribution. This study is founded on three related strands of thinking within the political economy tradition, Resource Curse Theory, Regulation Theory and Business Systems Theory, with the emerging common ground between these three bodies of thought being highlighted. As suggested by Resource Curse Theory, non-mineral producing regions tend to be particularly adversely affected in mineral rich countries, and there is little doubt that the region bore all the costs of the collapse of the gold price in the 1980s, and lacked the deeper capital base of the now Gauteng region to cushion the shock. Whilst apartheid may, as we have seen, have served conservative sectors of agriculture and mining quite well for many years, it also involved large costs incurred through social engineering experiments and the increasing demands of the security establishment. Resource Curse Theory suggests that national economies become dangerously dependent on the vagaries of commodities markets, and that the process of institutional design and evolution is hampered by assumptions of easy money which may temporary resolve the negative consequences of any institutional shortcomings. The poor price of gold in much of the 1980s brought about a crisis in the system, and, there is little doubt that this contributed to the demise of the order. As suggested by Resource Curse Theory, the experience of the Western Cape, a region of the country poor in minerals, was often one of inefficient and wasteful state intervention, coupled with increasingly poor performance of non-mineral related industries. Indeed, the effects of the recession of the 1980s were most pronounced in non-mineral producing areas of the country, particularly in the Western Cape. Regulation Theory highlights that no set of institutions and practices is ever totally coherent and functional, but at specific times may work to promote both certain types of economic activity and overall growth. It is wrong to suggest that because an order only works for some players at specific times it is simply dysfunctional or does not work properly at all. However, over time, internal contradictions mount and the benefits diminish. A particular feature of the apartheid order was that some of its core benefits at its height were particularly concentrated on some players (segments of Afrikaner commerce and industry, mining and agriculture), whilst the costs were shared across a wider range of players, with a disproportionate burden being borne by the black majority. A further feature was that the costs were often indirect and spread over many years if the benefits were sometimes immediate: this would include the persistent dysfunctionality of much of the South African education system and the criminal ecosystem that was nurtured through sanctions busting. Internal contradictions and spreading dysfunctionality rarely leads to a conscious and coherent period of institutional redesign, but rather an incoherent, experimental and contested process, such as characterized late apartheid reforms, and, indeed, the post February-1990 negotiation process. Finally, again at a theoretical level, as Business Systems Theory highlights, it is important to take account of the formal and informal ties interlinking firms in different sectors in the region, and firms and government, and the extent to which regions within a particular country may follow very distinct developmental trajectories. The benefits and the costs of the system diffused unevenly in the region, giving many players both a stake in the existing order, and an interest in some or other type of reform.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Can expansive (social) learning processes strengthen organisational learning for improved wetland management in a plantation forestry company, and if so how? : a case study of Mondi

  • Authors: Lindley, David Stewart
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: Mondi Group , Wetland management -- South Africa , Wetland conservation -- Study and teaching (Continuing education) , Employees -- Training of -- South Africa , Action theory , Critical realism , Social learning , Environmental education -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: vital:2003 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015661
  • Description: Mondi is an international packaging and paper company that manages over 300 000 ha of land in South Africa. After over a decade of working with Mondi to improve its wetland management, wetland sustainability practices were still not integrated into the broader forestry operations, despite some significant cases of successful wetland rehabilitation. An interventionist research project was therefore conducted to explore the factors inhibiting improved wetland management, and determine if and how expansive social learning processes could strengthen organisational learning and development to overcome these factors. In doing so, the research has investigated how informal adult learning supports organisational change to strengthen wetland and environmental sustainability practices, within a corporate plantation forestry context. How individual and/or group-based learning interactions translate to the collective, at the level of organisational change was a key issue probed in this study. The following three research questions were used to guide the research: 1. What tensions and contradictions exist in wetland management in a plantation forestry company? 2. Can expansive learning begin to address the tensions and contradictions that exist in wetland management in a plantation forestry company, for improved sustainability practices? 3. Can expansive social learning strengthen organisational learning and development, enabling Mondi to improve its wetland sustainability practices, and if so how does it do this? Cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) and the theory of expansive learning provided an epistemological framework for the research. The philosophy of critical realism gave ontological depth to the research, and contributed to a deeper understanding of CHAT and expansive learning. Critical realism was therefore used as a philosophy to underlabour the theoretical framework of the research. However CHAT and expansive learning could not provide the depth of detail required to explain how the expansive learning, organisational social change, and boundary crossings that are necessary for assembling the collective were taking place. Realist social theory (developed out of critical realism by Margaret Archer as an ontologically located theory of how and why social change occurs, or does not) supported the research to do this. The morphogenetic framework was used as a methodology for applying realist social theory. The expansive learning cycle was used as a methodology for applying CHAT and the theory of expansive learning; guiding the development of new knowledge creation required by Mondi staff to identify contradictions and associated tensions inhibiting wetland management, understand their root causes, and develop solutions. Through the expansive learning process, the tensions and contradictions become generative as a tool supporting expansive social learning, rather than as a means to an end where universal consensus was reached on how to circumvent the contradictions. The research was conducted in five phases: • Phase 1: Contextual profiling to identify and describe three activity systems in Mondi responsible for wetland management: 1) siviculture foresters; 2) environmental specialists; 3) community engagement facilitators. The data was generated and analysed through through document analysis, 17 interviews, 2nd generation CHAT analysis, and Critical Realist generative mechanism analysis; • Phase 2: Analysis and identification of tensions and contradictions through a first interventionist workshop. Modelling new solutions to deal with contractions, and examining and testing new models in and after the second interventionist workshop; • Phase 3: Implementing new models as wetland management projects and involved project implementation. This included boundary crossing practices of staff in the three activity systems, reflection and re-view in a further five progress review/interventionist workshops, and a management meeting and seminar; • Phase 4: Reflecting on the expansive learning process, results, and consolidation of changed practices, through nine reflective interviews and field observations; • Phase 5: Morphogenic/stasis analysis of the organisational change and development catalysed via the expansive social learning process (or not). The research found that expansive social learning processes supported organisational learning and development for improved wetland management by: 1) strengthening the scope, depth, and sophistication of participant understanding; 2) expanding the ways staff interact and collaboratively work together; 3) democratising decision making; 4) improving social relations between staff, reducing power differentials, and creating stronger relationships; 5) enhancing participant reflexivity through deeper understanding of social structures and cultural systems, and changing them to support improved wetland and environmental practice of staff, and developing the organisational structures and processes to strengthen organisational learning and development; and 6) using the contradictions identified as generative mechanisms to stimulate and catalyse organisational learning and development for changed wetland/environmental management.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Can δ15N and δ13C stable isotopes and fatty acid signatures indicate changes in phytobenthos composition on an artificial substrate?

  • Authors: Dalu, Tatenda , Froneman, P William
  • Date: 2014
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68086 , vital:29197 , https://doi.org/10.2989/16085914.2014.974018
  • Description: Publisher version , Temporal changes in fatty acid composition and δ15N, δ13C stable isotope values of the phytobenthos growing on artificial clay substrates under natural conditions over a 28-day period at an upstream and a downstream site in the Kowie River near Grahamstown were investigated in 2012. High concentrations of diatom markers 16:1ω7 and 20:5ω3 fatty acids were recorded, especially at the downstream site, reflecting the importance of diatoms in contributing to the phytobenthos communities at that station. After day 7 at the downstream site the average δ15N value of the phytobenthos was lighter, gradually increasing by ∼2‰ and ∼5‰ overall to heavier values on day 28. At the upstream site there were no significant changes (<1‰ increase) in δ15N values of the phytobenthos over time. Stable nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ13C) signatures in the phytobenthos communities were significantly different between sites (one-way ANOVA; p < 0.001). The stable isotope values and fatty acid concentrations of phytobenthos at the downstream site were different to those of the phytobenthos at the upstream site, and they changed concurrently with changes in the phytobenthos community structure. At the downstream site there was a strong correlation of the δ15N of phytobenthos with nitrates (R = 0.56) and time (weeks; R = 0.81). However, the fatty acids were not specific enough to characterise the composition of phytobenthos communities. Other biomarker methods, such as stable isotopes and microscopic examination of the communities, were found to be useful. The results from this relatively small-scale tile experiment indicate the complexity of changes in fatty acid composition and δ15N, δ13C stable isotope values of a phytobenthos community. Stable isotope and fatty acid composition can be successfully used to map changes in phytobenthos composition and carbon and nitrogen flow patterns along a river continuum.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Carbon nanotube-enhanced photoelectrochemical properties of metallo-octacarboxyphthalocyanines

  • Authors: Mphahlele, Nonhlanhla E , Le Roux, Lukas , Jafta, Charl J , Cele, Leskev , Mathe, Mkhulu K , Nyokong, Tebello , Kobayashi, Nagao , Ozoemena, Kenneth I
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/241595 , vital:50953 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-013-7710-1"
  • Description: The photoelectrochemistry of metallo-octacarboxyphthalocyanines (MOCPc, where M = Zn or Si(OH)2) integrated with MWCNTs for the development of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) is reported. The DSSC performance (obtained from the photo-chronoamperometric and photo-impedimetric data) decreased as ZnOCPc > (OH)2SiOCPc. The incorporation of the MWCNTs on the surface of the TiO2 film (MOCPc–MWCNT systems) gave higher photocurrent density than the bare MOCPc complexes. Also, from the EIS results, the MOCPc–MWCNT hybrids gave faster charge transport kinetics (approximately three times faster) compared to the bare MOCPc complexes. The electron lifetime was slightly longer (ca. 6 ms) at the ZnOCPc systems than at the (OH)2SiOCPc system (ca. 4 ms) meaning that the presence of the MWCNTs on the surface of the TiO2 film did not show any significant improvement on preventing charge recombination process.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Card games and containment : forensic psychiatric patients' experiences of a student-led initiative

  • Authors: Higgins, Jane Marie
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: Fort England Hospital Buddy Programme -- Grahamstown -- South Africa , Card games -- Therapeutic use , Mental illness -- Treatment , Mentally ill -- Rehabilitation , Group psychotherapy
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: vital:3243 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013314
  • Description: Despite South African forensic psychiatric institutions operating well over capacity, the urgent need for rehabilitation guidelines is neglected through lack of research in this area. This is further compounded by the constrained financial and professional resources available to the sector. The Fort England Hospital Buddy Programme (FEHBP) is a voluntary social and activity-based initiative involving 2 hourly visits between students and male forensic psychiatric patient volunteers. Through the use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, 1996), the participants’ experience of the programme was further contextualised within their lives pre and post admission. While further exploration through research is required, it appeared that within institutional confines the FEHBP acted in a substitutionary and surrogacy capacity, as a space for the development of social competence. While participants appeared to experience a sense of protectiveness from the programme, the limitations and restrictions are acknowledged as an increased number and variety of social network links would be required for a more sustainable sense of subjective wellbeing to develop. The FEHBP demonstrates the use of non-professional (community involved) interventions within a forensic psychiatric context.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Cardiovascular disease risk in Black African females and the efficacy of a walking programme on blood pressure in a sub-sample

  • Authors: Crymble, Tegan
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: Cardiovascular system -- Diseases -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Women -- Health and hygiene -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Obesity -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Hypertension -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Walking -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Physiological aspects , Lifestyles -- Health aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Health attitudes -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
  • Identifier: vital:5152 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013234
  • Description: The purpose of the study was to investigate the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk profile of black African females in the Makana region, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Baseline measures from 40 participants, who met the criteria, were compared against the 2003 South African Demographic and Health Survey (SADHS) and the 2013 South African National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (SANHANES-1). The risk factors measured were anthropometric (stature, body mass and body mass index (BMI)), morphological (waist circumference (WC), fat mass and lean mass), cardiovascular (heart rate and blood pressure (BP)), physical activity (step count and energy expenditure), biochemical (glycated haemoglobin and full blood lipid profile) and behavioural (alcohol and tobacco use). Results showed significantly higher (p≤0.05) values for overweight/obesity (BMI 37.60 kg.m⁻²; WC 1130.58 mm; fat mass 45.23%) and high BP (130/88 mmHg) compared to the previous national surveys, highlighting these CVD risk factors as problematic. The subsequent sub-study aimed to assess the efficacy of a pedometer-based walking intervention on high BP. The walking programme (n=25) was based on individual step goals to be completed at a moderate-intensity on five days.week⁻¹ for 12 weeks. The same measurements were taken at monthly intervals, Week 0, Week 4, Week 8 and Week 12, with the addition of dietary intake and fitness level, and the exclusion of the behavioural variables. There were no significant differences (p≤0.05) in systolic and diastolic BP with the exercise intervention, although there was a strong, negative relationship with time for diastolic BP (r²=0.9857). This trend suggests that the lack of significance may be a result of poor compliance and/or the small sample size. Individual results, however, showed no compliance-result relationship for the two risk factors of interest: overweight/obesity and high BP. Future recommendations include supervised or group-based exercise interventions to improve compliance, and the addition of resistance training to the aerobic programme.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Career choices of Rhodes University academics : internal and external influences on the decision making process

  • Authors: Rippon, Tamsyn
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: Rhodes University -- Vocational guidance , Vocational guidance , Career development -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , College teachers -- Job satisfaction -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Universities and colleges -- Faculty , Qualitative research
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
  • Identifier: vital:3229 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013074
  • Description: The career choice process, which emphasises the term ‘choice’, is one which is characterised by an ever changing multi-layered progression (Ozbilgin, Kusku & Erdogmus, 2004). This is due to the choice being a result of the on-going interaction between an individual and their social and organisational contexts. It is then safe to assume that this career decision making process involves an awareness of an individual’s surrounding environment and an ability to acknowledge and understand what they regard as being important to them. In support of this understanding, this research project seeks to draw attention to the career influences of a specific group of professionals rather than researching career choices across a range of professionals within different contexts in efforts to broadly predict career choice behaviour. This study rather focuses on the factors that actively influenced the career choices of ten Rhodes University Academics across a range of disciplines and faculties and their individual career decision making processes. In drawing on “mainstream and heterodox” (Ozbilgin et al., 2004, p. 2) literature, this research aims to apply existing notions presented by past researchers to South African academics, now residing and working at Rhodes University, which is located in the small town of Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. The methods of qualitative inductive research are discussed and the results are explored within the settings and contexts unique to each individual who has been drawn to the specific University context. The purpose of the study is to therefore adopt an inductive thematic analysis approach in seeking to examine the internal and external factors that served to influence the sample of academics into their chosen discipline, their decision to become and academic and their employer of choice, in light of the increasing pressure on higher education institutions to contribute to social and economic transformation within the South Africa (Tettey, 2006).
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Career success for women academics in higher education: choices and challenges

  • Authors: Obers, Nöelle Marie Thérèse
  • Date: 2014
  • Language: English
  • Type: article , text
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/61346 , vital:28017 , http://0-journals.co.za.wam.seals.ac.za/content/high/28/3/EJC159132
  • Description: The aim of the research reported on in this article was to contribute to an understanding of how women academics experience career success; how their choices and challenges impact on their career advancement; and how the playing fields in academia can be levelled. Understanding the constraints and identifying enabling aspects may help women academics to overcome obstacles in their career development and be more represented in academia and ultimately in society. This research was a case study undertaken at one higher education institution (HEI), Rhodes University (RU). The data was collected from institutional documents; questionnaire data from women academics at the HEI; and in-depth interviews with six women academics. The data indicate that mentoring is a strategy to enhance levels of self-esteem and research productivity and ultimately improve the representation of women in leadership and senior positions.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Causal determinants of the public's attitudes towards hunting as a basis for strategies to improve the social legitimacy of hunting

  • Authors: Coetzer, Wentzel Christoffel
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: Hunting -- South Africa , Wildlife management -- South Africa , Wildlife conservation -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DTech
  • Identifier: vital:10759 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1021164
  • Description: It is widely acknowledged that the organised wildlife and hunting industry in South Africa contributes significantly to the country’s economy, as well as to the effective management and conservation of wildlife on privately owned land. Despite this, hunting has come under increasing attack by anti-hunting proponents who wish to bring a ban on hunting. A number of broad shifts across society at large and lobbying against hunting by anti-hunting proponents have given rise to legitimate concerns regarding the social acceptability of hunting. To maintain the social legitimacy of hunting, it is imperative to put strategies in place to actively broaden the base of public acceptance of hunting. Towards this aim, this study is an empirical investigation of the causal determinants of the public’s attitudes towards hunting and of the implications it holds for improving the social legitimacy of hunting. The study commenced by building a sound theoretical foundation from the available literature on the measurement of attitudes, the structure and formation of attitudes, the instrumental and experiential aspects of attitudes, attitudinal ambivalence, the psychology of strong attitudes, as well as the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance. Thereafter, the study turned to identify an adequate and empirically valid research approach for investigating attitudes and its causal determinants. A popular attitude theory in social psychology, namely the theory of reasoned action, was identified as a suitable conceptual framework for conducting this study. According to the reasoned action model, the salient behavioural beliefs people associate with a particular behaviour form the informational foundation (or cognitive foundation) on which their attitudes towards the behaviour are based. More specifically, the model suggests that peoples’ overall attitude towards a behaviour is a function of their perceived probability that a behaviour will produce certain outcomes (belief strength), as well as the degree to which they judge the perceived outcomes of the behaviour as positive or negative (outcome evaluation). The methodological design of the study’s empirical component was strictly based on the standard procedures prescribed by the theory of reasoned action. Two consecutive and methodologically interrelated surveys were conducted amongst members of the public to collect the study’s primary data. The main salient behavioural beliefs on which different attitudes towards hunting are based were identified and further investigated. The results were analysed from the perspective of the theory of reasoned action and a clear understanding of the causal determinants of different attitudes towards hunting were attained. Based on the findings of the study, a number of conclusions and recommendations were made that may guide the development of future strategies to improve the social legitimacy of hunting. Amongst other things, it was suggested that public education programmes should be developed to address the public’s misconceptions of hunting; that public relation campaigns be undertaken to improve the public’s negative image of hunters; and that hunter education programmes be put in place to make hunters aware of the role they could play at community level to improve the social acceptability of hunting. Detailed guidelines regarding the contents of such education programmes and public relation campaigns were provided.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Causes and effects of non-payment of residential property rates in Mahikeng

  • Authors: Asianoah, Rexford Kofi
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: Debts, Public -- South Africa -- Mahikeng , Municipal default -- South Africa -- Mahikeng , Public utilities -- South Africa -- Mahikeng , Collecting of accounts -- South Africa -- Mahikeng
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
  • Identifier: vital:9674 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1020076
  • Description: One of the major sources of income to South African Municipalities is property rates. Income generated from property rates is meant to develop and deliver services to residents living in the said Municipal area. The main aim of the research was to identify the causes and effects of the non-payment of residential property rates, and also to develop workable strategies to maximise the collection of residential property rates in order to ensure developmental growth sustenance, specifically in Mahikeng Municipal area. Related literature was reviewed on the non-financial viability of Municipalities, maintenance of public infrastructure, service delivery and Municipal development plans in establishing the relationship with non-payment of residential property rates. Four hypotheses were set to guide the research with two testing positive with high level of confidence using the chi square method of testing. The research methodology employed in the research was mainly quantitative where the results and findings obtained from the questionnaire were statistically analysed. The research revealed that: The Mahikeng Local Municipality has failed to find the right medium to send rates bills to clients on time, is not taking active responsibility to recover rates debts, does not provide quality service delivery and the reluctance by locals to pay their property rates. The effects thereof, are the inability of the Municipality to deliver effective and efficient services, lack of maintenance of public infrastructure and development in the area. By implementing various options such as email, sms and the post to send rates bills to property owners, by employing different payment options, for example debit orders, transfers, bank deposits and discounts for property owners and embarking on periodic public awareness campaigns in educating the community regarding the importance of payment of property rates could serve as effective mechanisms to address the non-payment of residential property rates faced by the Mahikeng Local Municipality.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Celebrating 30 years of Feminism and Psychology

  • Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Capdevila, Rose , Marecek, Jeanne , Braun, Virginia , Gavey, Nicola , Wilkinson, Sue
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/444262 , vital:74211 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0452-2"
  • Description: Feminism and Psychology (FandP) was launched in 1991 with a sense of possibility, enthusiasm and excitement as well as a sense of urgent need – to critique and reconstruct mainstream psychology (theory, research methods, and clinical practice). Thirty years have now passed since the first issue was produced. Thirty volumes with three or four issues have been published each year, thanks to the efforts of many. On the occasion of FandP’s 30th anniversary, we, the present and past editors, reflect on successes, changes and challenges in relation to the journal. We celebrate the prestigious awards accruing to the journal, its editors, and authors, and the significant contributions the journal has made to critical feminist scholarship at the interface of feminisms and psychologies. We note some of the theoretical and methodological developments and social changes witnessed over the last three decades. We highlight challenges facing feminist researchers in academia as well as international feminist publishing. We conclude that the initial enthusiasm and excitement expressed by the then editorial collective was justified. But, there is still much work to be done.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Challenges faced by traditional healers when treating people living with HIV and AIDS: the case of Intsika Municipality, Eastern Cape province

  • Authors: Zimba, Zibonele France
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: People with HIV and AIDS disease -- Healers -- South Africa , Traditional medicine -- South Africa , HIV infections -- Treatment -- South Africa , AIDS (Disease) -- Treatment -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , M SW
  • Identifier: vital:11768 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1015357 , People with HIV and AIDS disease -- Healers -- South Africa , Traditional medicine -- South Africa , HIV infections -- Treatment -- South Africa , AIDS (Disease) -- Treatment -- South Africa
  • Description: The aim of the study was to examine the procedures followed by traditional healers treating people living with HIV and AIDS in the Instika Municipality and the challenges faced by them in this endeavour. Using the qualitative research method, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with twenty traditional healers. Among the significant findings of this study were the hardships encountered by traditional healers in terms of finance, the transport needed to collect medicinal plants, the shortage of medicinal plants, the lack of co-operation from the formal health care sector and the discrimination and abuse suffered at the hands of members of the community, with Christians and members of the SAPS being among the chief antagonists. It is also acknowledged in this study that traditional healers have been trained by the Department of Health concerning issues of hygiene and that traditional healers have knowledge of the symptoms of HIV and AIDS. It can therefore be concluded that traditional healers have a significant role to play in preventing the spread of HIV and AIDS if they employ preventative measures such as the use of protective gloves and limiting the use of a blade to one patient only. However, traditional healers are not supplied with safety kits or condoms to distribute to patients who consult them for treatment of STIs.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Challenges facing smallholder farmers in accessing credit in Gauteng province: South Africa

  • Authors: Mashile, Daphne Mmapabala
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: Agricultural credit -- South Africa -- Gauteng , Agriculture -- Finance
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/7991 , vital:24335
  • Description: Credit plays a significant role in agricultural growth, and it is understood that development of credit programmes will have a valuable impact on agricultural production earnings of smallholder farmers. It is also a strategic factor to poverty alleviation. In Gauteng, smallholder farmers source their loans commonly from informal moneylenders. This results in access to formal credit being at a low rate. Results show that low level of education, main occupation, group membership and household income are significant and have encouraging effects on access to credit financial services. The results also reveal that threats associated with borrowing are high interest rates and unavailability of credit financial institutions. These threats are the main challenges faced by smallholder farmers in this study. Financial institutions claim that farming is a risky business; the distance of getting to farmers makes the evaluation procedure challenging, and strict principles in the aspect of collateral is a main challenge in providing credit to smallholder farmers. It is recommended that accessibility to credit by smallholder farmers be developed by providing advanced financing schemes that will address problems of smallholder farmers who do not have security and thus reduce lengthy processing of documents and other requirements. In this manner, smallholder farmers may be stimulated to use formal credit and decrease their dependence on informal moneylenders, thus avoid higher interest rates, which will positively lead to increased smallholder farm production and household income.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Challenges facing SMME's in the film industry in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality

  • Authors: Ncoyo, Nosiphiwo
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: Small business -- South Africa -- Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality , Motion picture industry -- South Africa -- Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/8945 , vital:26445
  • Description: The Film Industry is regarded as a vital part of the South African economy. One of the advantages of this sector is the potential to create jobs. This has been evidenced over the years by direct jobs created for people in the entire film value chain. The Film industry has also generated many more jobs indirectly and sectors such as transport, catering and hospitality benefited enormously. The NFVF (2010) 10 years review of the Film and Video industry states that the South African government has identified the film industry as one of the catalytic vehicles for job creation and economic growth. Given the importance of the contribution of the Film Industry to job creation and economic development, there is a demand for SMMEs in this sector to be supported by Government. Not until recently the support given to Filmmakers was biased to Gauteng, Cape Town and Kwa-Zulu Natal as a result film makers would go to these Provinces for opportunities. This study has examined the challenges faced by SMMEs in the film industry in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality in acquiring Government support and to seek ways of addressing the challenges. There has been limited research undertaken on the support given to SMMEs in film particularly the Eastern Cape Province. After a comprehensive literature review was undertaken on SMMEs, the following variables were identified as conceivably affecting growth and development of SMMEs in the film industry: Enabling Legal and regulatory environment; Financial support; Technological support; Managerial support. This study followed a quantitative research method. A measuring instrument in the form of a questionnaire was compiled from secondary sources of literature. The respondents were identified through convenience sampling technique. The sample comprised of 35 out of 50 SMMEs in film. The empirical results showed that all of the variables, enabling legal and regulatory environment, financial support, technological support and managerial support had a relationship with growth and development of SMMEs in film.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Challenges facing teachers in implementing alternative measures of discipline in schools: a case study of five secondary schools in the Umzimkhulu circuit of the Sisonke District in Kwazulu-Natal

  • Authors: Zulu, Xolani Wycliff
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: School discipline , Secondary schools , Sisonke District -- Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Master's theses , text
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/2393 , vital:41455
  • Description: This dissertation is a report on a study that was conducted in rural schools of the Sisonke District in KwaZulu-Natal, a province of South Africa. The study covered the challenges experienced by teachers in implementing the alternative measures of discipline. The study was conducted because the researcher was the head of the disciplinary committee in the school where he was employed and he often dealt with disciplinary problems which usually occurred between the teachers, learners and SMTs. It was important to know from other schools, what problems they faced in implementing the alternative measures of discipline. The study used a qualitative research design in the form of a case study. Purposive sampling was used. The sample comprised 15 SMT members, and 20 post level 1 teachers, and the total number of participants was 35. Data was collected through observations which were followed by interviews. Qualitative methods were used to analyse data. This involved reduction and interpretation of data collected. The findings of the study highlighted the role that could be played by SMTs, teachers, parents, and the Department of Education in the smooth running of the school in dealing with the misunderstandings of alternative measures of discipline and so advance an effective work ethos. The study also illuminated the issue of negligence on the part of SMTs in enforcing the implementation of the alternative measures of discipline. There was a great need for school teachers to be well versed in the general legislation of the Department of Education so as to align themselves with the correct rules and regulations when they deal with disciplinary problems. , Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Humanities, Educational Management and Policy, 2014
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Challenges to corporate and brand image in multinational companies across different linguistic and socio-economic markets : a semiotic analysis

  • Authors: Lukusa, Adolphine Cama
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: Advocacy advertising , Mass media -- Semiotics , Figures of speech , Branding (Marketing)
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: vital:8430 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1020189
  • Description: Doing business "the French way" in a Francophone market niche may be somehow different from doing it "the English way" in an Anglophone market niche. Since both the employees’ and the customers’ knowledge of an organisation underpins the organisation’s performance in complex business world environments, Multinational Organisations (MNOs) need to find a manner in which they can achieve coherence between their strategic vision, organisational culture and corporate image across the different linguistic and socio-economic markets they interact with through the various marketing tools they use to stimulate recognition. As a result this can support the integrity and sustainability of their corporate brand across markets and across different linguistics landscapes while interacting with their existing and new foreign markets. This study concentrates particularly on the rhetoric figures and visual cues employed in the selected French and English advertising/promotional messages from different types of advertisements and different product packages of multinational organisation subsidiaries. The study looks at how both the rhetoric figures and visual cues in the selected advertising/promotional messages support the integrity and maintain the sustainability of the corporate brand of the selected companies. The latter is examined across different linguistic and socio-economic markets. The study explores and examines how the possible linguistic properties are used in the selected French and English advertising/promotional messages from different types of advertisements, including those on different product packages. It also looks at how the linguistic properties in selected advertising/promotional messages belonging to different types of advertisements are used in creating and maintaining a positive corporate image of the MNOs and that of their parent companies. In addition, this study analyzes the potential impacts and challenges on moral, cultural and life-style values that multinational subsidiaries inflict on customers through the advertising/promotional messages from different types of advertisements in the promotion and branding of their products and how this affects their corporate image and that of their parent organisations. This is a content analytical study of language features evident in the selected advertising/promotional messages from different types of advertisements and different product packages at the lexical, syntactic and discourse levels and their role and impact on selected multinational parent organisations and their subsidiaries’ corporate images together with those of their selected products. In order to conduct a data-driven study, the author built a data corpus based on 29 advertising messages from different types of advertisements and advertising messages printed on different product packages. The types of advertisements include the photographs and scanned images of billboards, mural billboards, outdoor advertising billboards and leaflets advertising/promoting specific services or products. The product packages include photographs and scanned images of product covers/wraps, primary packages of products, product containers’ stickers with messages printed on them, and primary boxes. The sample comes from six selected multinational subsidiary organisations from two different countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo, a Francophone and multilingual country, and the Republic of South Africa, an Anglophone and multilingual country. Through a detailed content analysis of the advertising/promotional messages from a diversity of sources used as a means of communication, with a focus on rhetoric figures ,visual cues and language features, their roles and potential impact on MNO’s, corporate images in foreign markets will be summarized. In the end, possible conclusions are drawn in the light of the role and impact that they have on the selected companies’ corporate image across different linguistic and socio-economic markets.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Challenging desire : performing whiteness in post-apartheid South Africa

  • Authors: Smit, Sonja
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: Performance art -- South Africa , Bailey, Brett, 1967- , Cohen, Steven, 1962- , Antwoord (Musical group) , MacGarry, Michael , Eurocentrism -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: vital:2164 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016358
  • Description: The central argument of this thesis asserts that in the process of challenging dominant subject positions, such as whiteness, performance creates the possibilities for new or alternative arrangements of desire. It examines how the creative process of desire is forestalled (reified) by habitual representations of whiteness as a privileged position, and proposes that performance can be a valid form of resistance to static conceptions of race and subjectivity. The discussion takes into account how the privilege of whiteness finds representation through forms of neo-liberalism and neo-colonialism in the post apartheid context. The analysis focuses on the work of white South African artists whose work offers a critique from within the privileged “centre” of whiteness. The research is situated within the inter-disciplinary field of performance studies entailing a reading and application of critical texts to the analysis. Alongside this qualitative methodology surfaces a subjective dialogue with the information presented on whiteness. Part Two includes an analysis of Steven Cohen’s The Cradle of Humankind (2011), Brett Bailey’s Exhibit A (2011) and Michael MacGarry’s LHR-JNB (2010). Each section examines the way in which the respective works engage in a questioning of whiteness through performance. Part Three investigates South African rap-rave duo, Die Antwoord and how their appropriation of Zef interrogates desires for an essential authenticity. Part Four focuses on my own performance practice and the proposed value of engaging with a form of practice-led research. This is particularly relevant in relation to critical race studies that require a level of self-reflexivity from the researcher. It presents an analysis of the work entitled Villain (2012) as a disturbance of theatrical desire through a process of ‘becoming’. This notion of meaning and identity as ‘becoming’ is argued as a strategy to challenge prevailing modes of perception which can possibly restore the production of desire to the viewer. The thesis concludes with the notion that performance can offer a mode of immanent ethics which is significant in creating both vulnerable and critical forms of whiteness.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Challenging hegemony? : a provincial perspective on the limits of policy challenge in the South African state

  • Authors: Reynolds, John
  • Date: 2014 , 2014-06-24
  • Subjects: Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1994-
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: vital:3372 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013031
  • Description: This thesis provides a provincial perspective on the limits of policy challenge within the post-apartheid South African state. This perspective is located in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, which is one of the poorest of the nine provinces into which the national territory was divided during the constitutional negotiations prior to the landmark democratic elections of 1994. The empirical foundation for this perspective is an analysis of the process of developing the Eastern Cape Provincial Growth and Development Plan 2004-2014 (PGDP), which took place in 2002-2004. Starting with a broader theoretical discussion, followed by a brief contextual analysis of the South African economy, the structure of the post-apartheid South African state, and key growth and development policies, the more detailed engagement with the PGDP process is undertaken. Drawing on Jessop’s (2008) strategic-relational approach, this thesis argues that the PGDP process arose within a particular spatio-temporal context where new opportunities for policy challenge were possible, but that such challenge had to be negotiated on a strategically selective terrain on which that challenge was neutralised. The PGDP process unfolded as a complex dialectic of agency and a range of path-dependent institutional processes with varying temporal and spatial horizons (cf. Pierson, 2004, 2005) in which no particular outcomes were guaranteed, but in terms of which some outcomes were more likely than others. Although the organisation of state power was expressed in the content of the PGDP, that power had to be understood as fractured across a range of state and non-state institutions, but with the state as the primary site of the contingent organisation of power. The provincial sphere of government faces particular constraints with the South African state, which has implications for its policy scope and the possibilities of policy challenge, even where wider social support is achieved.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Change in narrative therapy : a pragmatic hermeneutic case study

  • Authors: McLean, Neville Terence
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: Narrative therapy
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
  • Identifier: vital:3235 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013164
  • Description: The client of this case study was a twenty two year old female in her first year at university. The client had come into therapy because she had felt depressed, lonely and riddled with selfdoubt. The author used a Narrative Therapy approach with the client and was focussed on helping the client generate new meanings and stories that were more useful and empowering for the client. In this case study, the author was interested in exploring the process of change that the client underwent during the therapy process and he would rely on identifying innovative moments to track these changes. This interest informed the research question; what is the process of change in narrative therapy as tracked through the therapeutic dialogue? How does the change process in this case study track with the heuristic model of change put forward by Gonçalves and his colleagues? The author chose to use a pragmatic hermeneutic case study method in order to analyse the data and the results were organised into a coherent narrative. The data was collected from twenty two therapy sessions and these were grouped together into themes, namely a quick start, the beginning of change, thickening the innovative moments and lighting the fire. The results of this study reveal that despite being considered a good outcome case by the author, the process of change differed somewhat to that proposed by the heuristic model of change.
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 2014
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